Small Berkley brewery gets taste of success, beer now on tap at chain eatery in Taunton

Friday

Nov 15, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 15, 2013 at 3:04 PM

Glenn Barboza founded the Berkley Beer Co. in 2012. What started out as a home-brewing operation is turning into a lucrative business, and his beer is now on tap at the Bertucci’s restaurant in Taunton’s Silver City Galleria.

Rory Schuler

Glenn Barboza sat down at the bar and ordered a familiar beer.

He sipped the Golden Ale.

“Phenomenal,” he said, satisfied, setting the Berkley Beer Co. pint glass back on the Bertucci’s bar.

It wasn’t his first sip of a Berkley Beer Co. product. In fact, he’s sampled from the same batch now on tap at the Italian restaurant in Taunton’s Silver City Galleria mall.

His hands touched the hops and grains that went into the beer. He monitored the small batch as it brewed.
It’s his beer. It’s not just his glass of beer. It’s his beer company. He created it.

Barboza formerly spent his time interring underground cables. He gave that up to chase a dream.

“I’m pretty excited to be on tap in a place where I’ve eaten for years,” Barboza said, relishing his first beer served from a major chain eatery. “To come in and have a product I created is pretty exciting.”

Fabio Uddin-Alves, general manager of the Galleria’s Bertucci’s, helped marry the Massachusetts headquartered chain with the Berkley brewer after a company-wide initiative to pair locations with local craft beer-makers.

“Just a few years ago I was just a home-brewer,” Barboza said, relaxing, finishing his beer.

Berkley Beer Co. was founded in a small building, no bigger than a typical garage, behind Barboza’s Cotley Street home, down a bumpy dirt road.

The first batches came out of his kitchen, churned out of a home-brew kit.

Barboza broke out a batch of his beer at a backyard barbecue one summer. After knocking down about 50 gallons, his friends and neighbors urged him to go into business.

Eventually, he took their advice. His hobby blossomed into a brewery.

In 2011, Barboza took the leap. He put down an initial investment of around $40,000 to get licensed and upgrade his workspace and equipment.

He enlisted Sarah Arguin, of Dighton, to design his label.

“It’s clean, simple,” Barboza said, admiring the sticker affixed to one of his 22-ounce bottles. “It’s what the town’s all about — farming.”

By August 2012, he sold his first beer to the Berkley Common Store.

Now, Berkley Beer Co. growlers (64-ounce jugs) and 22-ounce bottles can be bought at more than 40 locations across the region.

Barboza relishes local ingredients. He feels they lend to his brews’ unique local character.

Tiverton’s Coastal Roasters coffee house roasts a special Costa Rican La Minita coffee bean used in Berkley Beer Co.’s Coffee Porter. The beans get a special dark roast treatment and are ground into dust just moments before brewing begins.

An experimental beer is currently fermenting in the large silver vats in Barboza’s brewery — Belgian golden ale made with honey from The Beekeeper’s Daughter in East Taunton.

The strong, slightly sweet beer will be aged in rye whiskey barrels provided by Ryan and Wood Distilleries of Gloucester.

And next year, Barboza hopes to enlist a Berkley farmer to cultivate a batch of 30 to 40 hop plants.

So far in 2013, the Berkley Beer Co. has produced and sold more than 100 barrels. He hopes to double that next year.

“We may be small, but our passion for creating an honest brew is great,” Barboza says on his website, www.berkleybeer.com. “All of our beers are crafted, brewed and bottled by hand for guaranteed quality and unparalleled taste.”

Berkley Beer Co.’s arsenal of suds also includes seasonal Harvest Ale, India Pale Ale, Belgian Red Rye and Irish Stout, which premiered at New Bedford’s last Oktoberfest and the Cape Cod Beer Fest.

“We got great reviews,” Barboza recalled.

Bertucci’s customers consumed the first keg of Barboza’s brew in about nine days. He has replenished the restaurant’s supply several times since it went on tap last month.

“We’re picking up,” Barboza said Wednesday. “And everything we make goes back into the business.”